Familiars
by ChickyGirl
Summary: Familiars are the things that keep us grounded when we are soaring high in emotion, they are the warmth that keeps us through the night when we are alone, and they are the ones to save our humanity when we are feeling rough.


**A/N: Hope you guys like this little snippet of Hermione and Severus, it's been a while since I posted anything so I decided to just write this little thing up.**

"Excuse me, Professor Snape?" Hermione Granger knocked hesitantly on the Potion Master's office door, berating herself for the hesitance as her head poked through the small opening from where he had it cracked. She was a Gryffindor dammit. Looking in she saw his dark head bent down over a stack of grading, his red tipped pen making bleeding slashes on the parchment of their essays.

"Miss. Granger," he said down to his desk, his hand never faltering or slowing.

She now stepped into his office as it seemed like he was in a good mood, for him anyway. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I haven't been able to find my familiar all day Have you seen him? He's an orange Kneazle. Sometimes he comes down here looking for rats."

Her professor finally looked up with a raised eyebrow. Hermione had always envied that, she could never have that much control over her eyebrows. Or much control over her facial expressions at all for that matter, her feelings always showed themselves no matter how much she tried. She learned to embrace it though. Waving his hand towards a curtain to the right of his desk, a floor to ceiling window appeared as dark purple velvet curtains parted to the side.

Both of Hermione's eyebrows raised in surprise, her mouth parting for a moment before she closed it. It seemed like the doorway to his office was charmed to be in place of one of the higher rooms of the castle seeing as she could see the late sun dipping behind the trees. But that wasn't what was surprising. Crookshanks laid sprawled on the short thick ledge within the windowsill. While soaking in the last of the sun's warmth from the stone he lied upon, her tomcat was wrapped around a skinny little black queen as he licked her behind her ears. As he sees her from his now unobstructed view of the room, he meows sweetly at her and jumps towards her after giving the girl one last lick.

"So this is where you having been sneaking off to all hours of the day. " Picking up her familiar, she nuzzled her head with his and kissed him between the eyes as she watched her Professor's cat jump down once her partner was gone. "Thank you sir, I was getting worried."

He had been watching her since Crookshanks had been untangled from his own familiar who was now preparing to jump on his desk. "Goodnight Miss. Granger."

She smiled at him, not at all worried about how bizarre it must seem if an onlooker had seen who exactly she was smiling at. He just seemed so, _normal_, once she observed him scratching her under the chin and hears her loud purr as if it were right in her ear. "Goodnight, sir." She turned towards the door, glancing back just in time to see one Severus Snape conjure a tiny ball of light above his narrowing eyed familiar who crouched down in a hunting stance she knew all too well. The small animal knocked over his red quill ink, trod right through the spill leaving tiny prints across the desk, and then jump to balance her her master's shoulders all the while trying to bat the light ball out of the air. All in a manner of seconds.

"Isidora!" The normally dour man scowled up to the girl who now stood with one paw balancing herself on his head with the other up in the air, but the corner of his lips twisted pwards.

Hermione quickly turned from the door, giggling quietly as Crookshanks purred loudly in her arms, still feeling the comforting linger of the man's magic caress the side of her face from the small spell he had used to make something for his would always remember thinking of that day, that small glimpse into the dark man's humanity and that comforting wave of his magic once she heard of the manner of Dumbledore's death. She didn't believe all was what it seemed when Harry had told her what had happened, after all, how could a man such as that play with his chosen familiar in such as carefree and sweet way?

She thought of that day, his words and actions echoing in her mind as she fought to keep the bleeding from his neck at bay from the Dark Lord's snake. His hand gripped her knee tightly, thinking he was going to die because she couldn't possibly be trying to save him after all he had done. He was a monster. He didn't care for anybody or anything as far as she knew.

"Why?" He had asked her once he had permission from Poppy to talk, his healing voice still rough from the abuse and inuse.

She had been walking into the private room he had, holding open the door for something he couldn't see. She smiled at him as a two black and orange shapes jumped onto the white sheets by his feet. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly as both purring fluffballs gingerly, for a cat, climbed up his body and wriggled their little head underneath his hands.

"Because," she sat down in the chair that had become hers next to his hospital bed with the book she had been reading to him the past few days. "A monster doesn't show the love he has for his familiar."

**A/N: Tell me what y'all thought!**


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